ISLAMABAD: Russian Ambassador to Pakistan Alexey Y. Dedov said that his country was ready to renovate Pakistan Steel Mills, Karachi and in case of its privatization, Moscow would mull over whether to bid for it or not.
“We demonstrated our readiness in modernization of these Steel Mills. In general we are ready to participate in renovation of the PSM. But as for purchasing shares, first of all Pakistani government should finally decide what to do with these mills, whether to renovate or to privatize,” Alexey told APP in an interview here.
In case of its privatization the decision would be taken keeping in view its price or other aspects because then it would be a commercial deal, he added. Pakistan Steel Mills is largest industrial mega corporation with a production capacity of 1.1-5.0 million tonnes of steel and iron foundries.
When questioned on the construction of floating Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal at Port Qasim in Karachi and gas pipeline, he said “these projects are also in the sphere of our interest and we are already participating in it. So far there are some practical steps ahead in term of our negotiations and the process has already been launched.”
Our company Global Resources is already in negotiations with Pakistani side concerning this gas pipeline from Port Qasim Northward and he hoped there would some practical outcome of these talks.
When asked what hampered boosting trade between the two countries, he said there existed an old problem of “unsettled mutual debt obligation” of US $120 million pending resolution since 1990s”. The ministries of finance of the two sides were working to sort it out, he added.
In the existence of this issue, Russia cannot provide state guarantees on state loans until this issue is resolved. Actually some Pakistani companies had supplied goods to Russian firms but were not paid.
However, he said that ministries of the finances of the two countries had agreed to draft an agreement to resolve this issue, “so we are moving ahead in this direction,” though in slow pace, he said. Russian side has given its draft to Pakistani side and is waiting its response, he added.
The envoy said that the aggregate bilateral trade between Moscow and Islamabad was $460 million in last two years and the main reason for this was a drastic fall of Pakistani demand for importing Russian iron and steel as it used to be $ 60 million which slumped to $17 million per year. However there were some “positive trends” as Pakistan was exporting toys and sports goods to Russia.
He stressed bilateral exchange of business delegations for establishing direct links between Russian and Pakistani entrepreneurs. He said Russian honorary consul in Lahore Habib Ahmed had been engaged in organizing tourists and businessmen trips between the two countries.
On Free Trade Agreement between Russia and Pakistan, he said it is on the table but there is a lot of work to be done in this regard.
